John Warren Trott, Jr. moved every 6 months as his father, Jack Sr. was a Navy man. Despite constant uprooting he still managed to skip half of 5th grade and the 6th grade. He graduated from San Diego high school, which is where he met his life long best friend Eugene "bockie" Bockmuehller. Together they played in the school jazz band with Bockie on sax and Jack on trumpet. Bockie went on to tour with Tommy Dorsey. After earning his degree in aeronautical engineering from Catholic University in D.C., Jack toured the country with the Skinnay Ennis Orchestra, but eventually settled into a career at Douglas Aircraft where he worked on many important projects, most noteably Skylab. He married and had a family, but his passion for jazz never left him and when the opportunity to take early retirement came he took it and went back to jazz full time. He toured with Harry James, recorded with Dick Carey, Dick Hamilton, Roger Neumann, Bob Enolvoldsen, Bob Estes, toured with the Ice Capades, worked in TV on such shows as Charlie's Angels, Love Boat and Quatum Leap, and such movies as SST Death Flight, Crybaby and Elizabethtown. He was a proud member of the LA musicians Union and played till, as he told me, "his lip gave out". He died from complications of prostate cancer in the home his parents lived in for 50 years while being cared for by his children. His last words were funny and he was the funniest man most people could ever hope to meet. He always downplayed his talent as a musician and mathematician. He drank too much, showed love too little and regretted both, but in the end showed he was just a sentimental trumpet player. At my wedding instead of a reading from the bible he played the song "More than you know" on his prized trumpet. I didn't realize for years that there were lyrics to that song. Long after he died I realized he loved much deeper than he was ever able to express but the lyrics told me all the things I now know he wished he'd said to me and his family. "Lately I find, you're on my mind, more than you know".
John Warren Trott, Jr. moved every 6 months as his father, Jack Sr. was a Navy man. Despite constant uprooting he still managed to skip half of 5th grade and the 6th grade. He graduated from San Diego high school, which is where he met his life long best friend Eugene "bockie" Bockmuehller. Together they played in the school jazz band with Bockie on sax and Jack on trumpet. Bockie went on to tour with Tommy Dorsey. After earning his degree in aeronautical engineering from Catholic University in D.C., Jack toured the country with the Skinnay Ennis Orchestra, but eventually settled into a career at Douglas Aircraft where he worked on many important projects, most noteably Skylab. He married and had a family, but his passion for jazz never left him and when the opportunity to take early retirement came he took it and went back to jazz full time. He toured with Harry James, recorded with Dick Carey, Dick Hamilton, Roger Neumann, Bob Enolvoldsen, Bob Estes, toured with the Ice Capades, worked in TV on such shows as Charlie's Angels, Love Boat and Quatum Leap, and such movies as SST Death Flight, Crybaby and Elizabethtown. He was a proud member of the LA musicians Union and played till, as he told me, "his lip gave out". He died from complications of prostate cancer in the home his parents lived in for 50 years while being cared for by his children. His last words were funny and he was the funniest man most people could ever hope to meet. He always downplayed his talent as a musician and mathematician. He drank too much, showed love too little and regretted both, but in the end showed he was just a sentimental trumpet player. At my wedding instead of a reading from the bible he played the song "More than you know" on his prized trumpet. I didn't realize for years that there were lyrics to that song. Long after he died I realized he loved much deeper than he was ever able to express but the lyrics told me all the things I now know he wished he'd said to me and his family. "Lately I find, you're on my mind, more than you know".
Gravesite Details
Jack's ashes will eventually be scattered at sea, 3.4 nautical miles off the coast of Pt. Loma, California, where the ashes of his parents were also scattered
